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17 - Emotional Creativity

Emotional Experience as Creative Product

from Part IV - Emotions and Creative Products

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2023

By
Radek Trnka
Edited by
Zorana Ivcevic ,
Jessica D. Hoffmann  and
James C. Kaufman
Zorana Ivcevic
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Jessica D. Hoffmann
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
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Summary

The chapter summarizes the conceptual foundations of, and research on, emotional creativity (EC). Emotional creativity is defined as a pattern of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. Emotional creativity is related to personality traits (e.g., openness to experience), positive affect, post-traumatic growth, and engagement in creative leisure activities. In applied settings, emotional creativity is related to innovative performance of employees as well as higher teaching efficacy. Meta-analysis revealed that women showed higher emotional creativity than men. Emotional creativity is also lower in older adulthood compared to younger age. Because the levels of EC are sensitive to the decline of cognitive functions in older adults, their decrease can be considered as one of the indicators of cognitive aging. Recent research in clinical neuropsychology has also revealed that older adults in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease showed decreased emotional creativity compared to healthy older adults. Several directions and research questions for future research are developed.

Keywords

emotional creativityemotionsECIpersonalityaffectcreative ability
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions , pp. 321 - 339
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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